Getting a hair transplant at 21-22? (Photo)

For many years, the standard therapy in the hair loss industry has been
hair transplant. Unfortunately, it is never advisable for someone in their
early 20s to get a hair transplant. The simple reason is when you are losing
hair as quickly as you are, there aren’t enough hairs to cover the area of hair
loss.



I’m a board certified cosmetic surgeon. I trained in the time when hair
transplants were done with big, round plugs that were taken out and placed in
the scalp. I’ve lived through the different evolutions including micrografts,
minigrafts and now follicular unit extraction. These are all great advancements
and certainly the procedure has improved in some ways. However, regardless of
the technology and the names, there’s only one simple physiologic reality -
your donor area or the area at the back of the scalp has limited number of
hairs.



In our practice, we developed a treatment called Hair Regeneration. In
fact, we developed a company at this point called Trichostem® Hair Regeneration
because of its success. Essentially, we’re trying to bring
the technology and methods to treat hair thinning by not doing hair transplant
but using an injection treatment. This treatment has a combination of
platelet-rich plasma (PRP) derived from your own blood combined with Acellular
matrix which is a wound-healing agent. Close to a 100% of our male patients see
improvement.



I’m always anxious to help people understand that the earlier we catch
someone, the better the results. If we can catch somebody as young as 18, we
treat them. We haven’t treated anyone under 18 for pattern hair loss but we do
treatment in this age especially when there’s clearly a family history which we
can confirm either from microscopic or biopsy.



You would be a better candidate for treatment like Hair Regeneration
although we can never guarantee success. Sometimes, people are losing hair very
aggressively and we may not catch them soon enough to get back as much hair as
we would like. Certainly I would say that this is a better option to consider
than a surgical hair transplant.



At this point, it’s advisable that you learn more about these options.
You should also think about finasteride, but I’m not sure if it’ll be of any
value to you. However, in our practice, patients who come to us from all over
the world are very much against the use of finasteride because of fear of
long-term sexual side effects. Clearly, we have been able to improve that our
treatment works independent of pharmacologic assistance. I hope that was
helpful, I wish you the best of luck, and thank you for your question.



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It is unfortunate that you are losing hair at such young age.  Nevertheless, I still advocate a good exam and history for a diagnosis (make sure there isn't other issues for hair loss other than genetic balding).  Then you and the doctor can discuss options.  "SHOULD I have a hair transplant surgery", is the wrong question.  You need to understand all your options then determine YOU WANT.  For example, hair transplant may NEVER meet your expectations when you are completely bald and have just sparse coverage.  Is that acceptable to you?  Everyone is different.Maybe you want to shave your head one day and a hair transplant will leave you with scarring that you'll be  self conscious about.  FUE still leaves a scar despite what you read.Maybe you'll find out Scalp MicroPigmentation (SMP) may work for you.Maybe you'll realize you're not ready for any of this and try taking Propecia before you decide.You need a MASTER PLAN.

Usually, we try to wait till the baldness pattern sets in the young people but in your case, it is already well settled, so you can go in for one sitting of hair transplant right now. However, you should understand that the expectation should be realistic ( skin cover) and multiple sittings will be required to cover the bald area from front to back side. Also, your baldness may still increase further laterally and you may require more grafts over there also.